Orangutans (Pongo spp.) Fact Sheet: Diet & Feeding

Diet

• Fruits, leaves, bark, nuts, seeds, insects, and honey.
• The Sumatran orangutan (P. abelii) is more frugivorous and insectivorous and eats less inner bark of trees than do Bornean orangutans (P. pygmaeus) (Wich et al. 2004)
• More than 500 plant species recognized in diet of orangs
• They have been described as "gardeners of the forest" for the role in seed distribution (Rijksen & Meijaard 1999)
• Eating soil is not uncommon in the wild.
• Very rarely observed eating small vertebrates (birds, lizards, rodents, slow loris).
• Time spent foraging on different types of food varies greatly season to season.
• When fruits are scarce, orangutans spend up to 90% of their foraging time eating shoots and leaves.
• Water obtained mostly from the vegetation eaten; also by licking wet vegetation and fur on forelimbs.
• Often exhibit bimodal pattern of foraging (morning and afternoon), separated by periods of rest.
• Time spent foraging each day: 4.3 - 6.3 hours.

Image credit: © San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. All rights reserved.

Fox et al. (2004)
Kaplan and Rogers, (1994)
Rijksen & Meijaard (1999)
Tuttle, (1986)
Wich et al. (2004)